Hackery

As some of you know I'm attending a convention this week. First rule of conventions; smile like an idiot. Just keep that smile on your face, and everything will go smooth. Hopefully.

Second rule of conventions - if they put out sodas, grab as many as you can without being obvious about it - you can drink them later on in your room.

Those are all the rules I know.

They had a comedian talk at the convention last night - a Christian Comedien. And he was a hack. And I'm not sure those two things aren't connected.

I think that Christians can be just as funny as non-Christians. And I think you don't need to work dirty to be funny or relevant. But when you are selling yourself as a "clean" comedian and as a Christian, there's a bit of room for hackery. Because people are supposed to like you and, more importantly, support you based on something besides your talent. This guy told old jokes, barely dusting them off, peppered his speach with references to meeting attendees, and stepped on his punchlines several times. He was pretty funny, all in all, but jokey and obvious.

Anyway it was kind of sad - but at any time you are trying to succeed based on something besides your talent (this goes for leftist bands selling themselves self-consciously as leftist bands, for example), well, there's room for hackery.